Dad shares moment of horror

Anti-violence protesters on the march.

The father of Emily Longley has spoken publicly for the first time of seeing his murdered daughter's body.

Mark Longley told about 350 people at a Hastings rally for men's anti-violence organisation White Ribbon of the shock of realising his 17-year-old daughter was dead.

His message was simple: if someone had acted, Emily might be alive today. Emily was murdered in England in May 2011 by Elliot Turner, with whom she was trying to break up. Turner was jailed for at least 16 years.

Longley last saw Emily alive in New Zealand, hugging her goodbye two weeks before her death.

"The next time I saw her it was in the morgue. In this particular morgue they would lead you into a dark room with a bed.

"Then they slowly raised the light level and there lying in the bed was Emily, my daughter. She looked like she was asleep.

"I thought she was going to open her eyes and say, 'Boo', and laugh at this trick she had played."

It was a horrible moment knowing he couldn't help her, that her death was final.

Longley said he was sharing that awful moment in hope that he might stop someone else having to go through what Emily went through.

Rally organiser Joe Bailey said Longley's speech moved the audience to tears.